Nominally a slang term to describe anyone from the mountainous region of Antioquia, paisas are alternately the butt of jokes and the object of envy for many Colombians. What makes them stand out is their rugged individualism and reputation for industriousness. Their fame dates back to the early nineteenth century, when they cleared Colombia’s hinterland for farming in exchange for the government’s carrot of free land. Perhaps the biggest paisa contribution to Colombia is its role in the spread of coffee.

The heart of paisa country is the metropolis of Medellín, which has made a remarkable turnaround since its days as Colombia’s murder capital in the early 1990s, and turned into an attractive cosmopolitan city. The picturesque coffee-growing fincas near the modern cities of Manizalesand Pereira were almost all established by paisa homesteaders and some growers have opened their estates to tourists, who during harvest time can partake in the picking process. Easily accessible from Pereira, the incredibly photogenic village of Salentois the gateway to some great hiking in the misty Valle de Cócora. The so-called Zona Cafetera, or “Coffee Zone”, is the base for exploring one of Colombia’s most postcard-perfect national parks, Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados.

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Coffee and Cocaine

It’s hard to say which of Colombia’s two cash crops garners more international attention, the white or the black one. One thing is for certain: both are synonymous with quality. The country’s first bumper crop was coffee. Colombia is the second-largest producer of hand-picked mild Arabica coffee after Brazil and the third-largest overall coffee producer in the world (behind Vietnam and Brazil). High temperatures, heavy rainfall and cool evening breezes make Colombia the bean’s ideal habitat, though changes in weather patterns have led to poor crops in recent years: 7.8 million bags were produced in 2011 following torrential downpours, fungus and flooding, well below the average of around 12 million.

Cocaine was perceived as an innocuous stimulant until the twentieth century. Two US presidents, several European monarchs and even a pope were early addicts (and vocal advocates) of Vin Tonique Mariani, a nineteenth-century liqueur made from coca extract. The “real thing” that Coca-Cola initially pushed on its customers was cocaine. For Sigmund Freud, a spoonful of coke each day was the cure for depression. Plan Colombia has seen some decline in coca cultivation, though coca growers have merely moved on to producing hardier coca crops that give four times as much yield and grow far faster than old crops, though the cocaine-related cartel violence that used to plague the cities of Medellín and Cali has recently been “exported” to Mexico, where drug trade-related murders have risen dramatically in the last few years.